MS MS - Biloxi, WhtFem 19-25, UP11582, poss pigeon-chest/humpback, poss played wind instrument, Nov'80

[carbuff]

I talked to Helen at LSU this morning by telephone. She says that they have been unable to locate identifiers of any kind for Arrilla Webb-Vaul. There was supposed to be a "clump of hair" that belonged to her, but when they located it, there was only a single strand, and they were unable to extract any DNA from it.

Furthermore, as far as I can tell, she has no children, no siblings, and her parents are likely deceased. I found a woman listed in Ancestry who might be her maternal aunt, but she is likely deceased too. The best that we can probably hope for is to locate any descendants of that maternal aunt, who would be able to provide a mtDNA-compatible FRS.

Arrilla's Doenet says DNA is available. Her Namus shows "Sample submitted--tests incomplete." So it looks like she either has or will have DNA soon.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/743dfla.html
https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/734

 

[eemaggie78]

I am a high school friend of Arrilla Webb-Vaul's and posted information I had on her a while back.
This is the time of year I think about her for obvious reasons. I am very interested in the DNA testing and very happy to see that she is still looked for.
I found another photo of her that might be of use, attaching it here. Maybe it will of use if you don't already have it.

 

[Roselvr]

I am a high school friend of Arrilla Webb-Vaul's and posted information I had on her a while back.
This is the time of year I think about her for obvious reasons. I am very interested in the DNA testing and very happy to see that she is still looked for.
I found another photo of her that might be of use, attaching it here. Maybe it will of use if you don't already have it.
View attachment 90611

Here is the link to her thread, I copied your photo there. Photos are always appreciated.

Arrilla's Doenet says DNA is available. Her Namus shows "Sample submitted--tests incomplete." So it looks like she either has or will have DNA soon.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/743dfla.html
https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/734

In her thread the incomplete DNA was posted a year ago. I'm not sure what's going on

 

[EmmaliLucia]

Huh. I hope that they can get her DNA in the system. I guess it's a wait and see kinda thing though.

Do we have any idea is she has any dental records?

 

[webrocket]

Try as I might, I looked for maternal relatives of Arrilla. She had an aunt, i.e. her mother's sister who was born in 1917. However, she was married multiple times and I have not found any evidence that she had children. She first married in 1936 for a day. She married again in 1944 at the age of 27. She had a new surname by 1954 and then again by 1960. Realistically speaking if she had any children most likely it would have been by husband #2 as she was already 37 y.o. by the time she married a third time. Census records from this period are not available.

She died in Texas in 1990 at the age of 73.

 

[CarlK90245]

I am a high school friend of Arrilla Webb-Vaul's and posted information I had on her a while back.
This is the time of year I think about her for obvious reasons. I am very interested in the DNA testing and very happy to see that she is still looked for.
I found another photo of her that might be of use, attaching it here. Maybe it will of use if you don't already have it.
View attachment 90611

That is a great photo of her teeth to compare to the representation of her teeth in the sculpture. There are some interesting similarities.

Taking into account the front tooth (#8) could have been chipped after her portrait was taken, and the possibility that some of the teeth on her left side (viewer's right) were loose when the casting of the skull was made (which is often the case with skeletal remains), they line up pretty well. I wouldn't say for sure that this is spot on. There is some very slight variation, but I'd say it is very close.

 

[webrocket]

Update on relatives. I should know the answer to this question by now, but by maternal relatives do we want ANY blood relation from the mother's side or just female blood relatives of her mother? I have focused on finding female relatives. Arrilla's mother had two brothers and I had not looked for descendants of theirs.

I am omitting surnames here as not to drag living people into this thread involuntarily. Arrilla's grandmother Bertha had two sisters both of whom had children. She also had two brothers. One sister Louise got married and had four children, one of whom was named Daniel, Jr. He died in 2011 but I found an obituary which names his three other siblings (one of whom was still alive as of 2011) and his five children and the town in which they all reside.

So if I have my degrees of kindred correct, the surviving children of Daniel, Jr. were second cousins to Arrilla.

 

[CarlK90245]

Update on relatives. I should know the answer to this question by now, but by maternal relatives do we want ANY blood relation from the mother's side or just female blood relatives of her mother? I have focused on finding female relatives. Arrilla's mother had two brothers and I had not looked for descendants of theirs.

Descendants of an uncle would not be very useful for nuclear (nucDNA), and not useful at all for mitochondrial (mtDNA).

The uncle on the mother's side would probably be suitable for mtDNA, assuming that his mother is Arrilla's grandmother. It doesn't matter whether the relative submitting the FRS is male or female, it only matters if the ancestral line that connects him/her to Arrilla is all female.

 

[carbuff]

And the children of the grandmother's sisters? Wouldn't that be the female line as well?

 

[CarlK90245]

And the children of the grandmother's sisters? Wouldn't that be the female line as well?

Yes, assuming that they shared the same great-grandmother. And the sons/daughters of those "grandmother's sisters" would be suitable for mtDNA testing as well.

 

[webrocket]

All of the people I found are descended from Arrilla's maternal great-grandmother Josephine who gave birth to Bertha (Arrilla's grandmother) and Louise whose descendants I was able to trace with the help of obituaries online.

I would never personally make contact with them as I am a stranger and they may not even have known of Arrilla's existence.

However, if someone is more confident with contacting LE, etc., I could privately send the names.

 

[carbuff]

All of the people I found are descended from Arrilla's maternal great-grandmother Josephine who gave birth to Bertha (Arrilla's grandmother) and Louise whose descendants I was able to trace with the help of obituaries online.

I would never personally make contact with them as I am a stranger and they may not even have known of Arrilla's existence.

However, if someone is more confident with contacting LE, etc., I could privately send the names.

Could you go through her Namus case manager?

 

[Roselvr]

Michael Nance has not answered me; I replied again. We don't know if we need to contact relatives. I don't have a problem doing it.

 

[webrocket]

I've never heard a peep from anyone I've contacted through Namus.

 

[Roselvr]

All of the people I found are descended from Arrilla's maternal great-grandmother Josephine who gave birth to Bertha (Arrilla's grandmother) and Louise whose descendants I was able to trace with the help of obituaries online.

I would never personally make contact with them as I am a stranger and they may not even have known of Arrilla's existence.

However, if someone is more confident with contacting LE, etc., I could privately send the names.

I told Michael Nance that someone possibly traced relatives; he replied back to please let him know if we have information about relatives.

I've never heard a peep from anyone I've contacted through Namus.

Unfortunately, that's how it seems to be these days until you throw them the right bone. Very disappointing.
I'm reaching out to another contact to see if they can find out who holds the DNA that's listed on Doe Net. I'm not holding out any hope that it's really available but you never know.

We should discuss Arrilla in her thread lol

 

[webrocket]

I told Michael Nance that someone possibly traced relatives; he replied back to please let him know if we have information about relatives.



Unfortunately, that's how it seems to be these days until you throw them the right bone. Very disappointing.
I'm reaching out to another contact to see if they can find out who holds the DNA that's listed on Doe Net. I'm not holding out any hope that it's really available but you never know.

We should discuss Arrilla in her thread lol

I'll send the names to you roselvr and it would be appreciated if you could pass it along to Michael Nance.

 

[Roselvr]

I'll send the names to you roselvr and it would be appreciated if you could pass it along to Michael Nance.

Just waking up; send me the FB pages too

 

[Roselvr]

I'll send the names to you roselvr and it would be appreciated if you could pass it along to Michael Nance.

All of the info on Arilla's distant cousins has been sent to Michael Nance. I asked that he let me know how it works out.
Thank you so much for helping another MP to hopefully go home. The only other option would be to exhume her mom.

 

[Roselvr]

All of the info on Arilla's distant cousins has been sent to Michael Nance. I asked that he let me know how it works out.
Thank you so much for helping another MP to hopefully go home. The only other option would be to exhume her mom.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

DNA Status: Samples submitted - Tests not complete

 

[Otterly]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) DNA Status: Samples submitted - Tests not complete

Promising news.